A Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A330's forward passenger door was ripped off after a rear air bridge at Hong Kong International Airport collapsed on 7 April.
The incident happened at around 18:00 local time, after all 262 passengers had boarded flight CX532 bound for Nagoya.
The aircraft, with registration B-HLF, had its airframe built in 1995.
"The air bridge at gate 71 fell because of a technical problem," says an Airport Authority Hong Kong spokesman.
A worker in the operating cabin of the air bridge was injured.
It is understood that the rear air bridge had collapsed, crashing into the front air bridge and the forward passenger door of the aircraft was ripped off in the process.
Local media reports say the aircraft could have started pushing back earlier than it should have, with images showing the front door of the aircraft ripped off. It is unclear whether the aircraft's door was closed when the incident happened.
When contacted, Cathay Pacific would only say that one of the A330's doors "has been damaged" and that maintenance work is being done.
"We expect that it will take a few days for it to become serviceable," adds a spokesman.
The Airport Authority has, meanwhile, suspended the operations of all 48 rear air bridges at the airport to allow for a thorough investigation.
"We're still investigating the cause of the incident and for the sake of safety, we have to suspend the operations of the rear air bridges. We're still not sure whether it's because of the structure or because of some operation issue," says the spokesman.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
